RHETT TURNS 2!!!

 Our Little Man is now a Big Little Man :)

He is so so so great! He makes us laugh so much. He's talking a TON now, doesn't so much stop, ever.  He knows lots of his colors.  

He LOVES the number 2--which is very appropriate. If there's more then one of anything, that means there's 2.  

His favorite color is 'yea-wo'. 

His favorite song is 'Popcorn Popping' which he asks for by putting his hands over his eyes.  

He mostly only eats: fruit, yogurt, deli turkey, and chicken nuggets.

He's a screamer as of late when it comes to naps and bed time...so that's fun.

He likes to be neat and tidy--always wipes his feat before coming in the house, asks for napkins at the dinner table to wipe his hands and messes up with, and hates when his feet get 'gwoss' and will get wipes to clean them off.

His favorite books are "The Happy Man and His Dump Truck", "Go Train Go", a BackYardigans finding book, and a music book about Mater from Cars.

Favorite thing to watch is Elmo's World.

He loves sneaking up on us and tickling us. 

He LOVES boots...Lukes boots.

He loves balls and bats and jumping on the tramp and wrestling, candy--candy--candy, baths, bubbles, and dancing.  

He's currently undergoing sub-par potty training.  Here's a picture of him pant-less and watering the front lawn.  (I don't know how this kind of stuff happens around here :)

We love him soooooo much. He's a happy little man and makes those around him happy.

Video of Rhett's big day :)

Backyard Happy Water Time

So Saturday the boys were at each others throats a little bit...until they went out back to clean up the yard and WHAM---water time totally fixed all that!  Again...we know our toy bin in the backyard--used as a swimming pool is ghetto--BUT, that doesn't change the fact that the boys LOVE IT.

Luke practicing for the circus!

The boys revving up to jump in the 'pool'

still FUN--yay

wait...too fast....wo wo wo

ahhh--my brothers were too excited!

Anyway--the rest of the day was so much happier.  They played hard outside, and loved each other.  Good times.

Max

 Maxwell George Monson Winn

March 19, 2012

12:21 p.m.

8 lbs 12 oz

21 inches long

We love this little guy.  Well, at 8 lbs 12 oz he was almost a pound bigger then our biggest..so we love this tubby guy.  Here's his (long version :) story:

Carrying Max for the last month was a bit harder then it's been in the past. Because of the way he was sitting, I couldn't stay as active as I've been blessed to in the past.  I waddled a lot more--so that was fun :).  At week 37 we found out that he was transverse (sideways instead of head down).  Dr. Joseph said that we'd give it a week--so I could have a talk with the little one :) and then we'd try to turn him. If that didn't work then we'd schedule my c-section.  I was so nervous for that. I'm not one to like anything with blood or opening skin and having my guts out...that sort of thing...so it unnerved me.  That week I got a lot of advice and heard a lot of c-section stories. I felt a lot better--but definitely didn't want a c-section if I didn't have to.

ANYWAY, 2 days before my 38 week appointment I put Rhett down for his nap and decided to lay down with him.  I actually felt Max shift in my belly--but wasn't positive that's what I felt.  When we woke up, we decided to take the boys to the movies to see The Lorax (LOVED IT!  We love Dr. Seuss soooooo bad!  I always get a little bit misty eyed at the end of that story when I read, "Unless"...oh, he's just so great.)  It was great cause this was the first time I really felt Max in my ribs--ironic it's when we were going to sit for an extended period of time-ha ha! BUT it was great.  At the appointment both the doctor and the ultrasound tech were super surprised that HE'D TURNED--on account of there being no room in there for moving around willy-nilly.
BUT HOORAY!  No more c-section!  It was later that I found out that Jess' amazing mom had asked his family to fast for me--I KNOW this is why he turned.
What an amazing blessing it is to have a Father in Heaven who cares about our needs AND our wants. 
 I'm so so grateful for Jess' family and their strength and testimonies!  HOORAY FOR THE GOSPEL!

On Sunday, March 18th--my due date, I started having contractions at about 3:30 in the morning. Jess was at work so I called him around 5:00 just to let him know what has going on. He got home, and since the contractions were still 15 minutes apart we went to church.  That afternoon, they were 5 minutes apart so we went to the hospital.
I stayed 5-8 minutes apart for the two hours I was there but didn't move past a 3. My doctor was out of town till Monday doing a triathlon, so they called the doctor on call and he wanted my doctor to deliver me so....they sent us home.  Lame.  (but I'm sooo glad that my doctor delivered me--he's so great)
That night my contractions kept coming and it was awful!  I was having the chills and throwing up and...so it wasn't the best night of my life, Jess gave me a blessing at one point (did I mention I LOVE the gospel!  WE ARE SOOOO BLESSED) and I was able to calm down and rest for a little while.  We got the boys off to school and I called Dr. Joseph.  I told him I still hadn't moved past 5 minutes apart but that I had a pretty rough night. He said, "Cari, if you're in pain come to the hospital and let's have a baby today!"  I almost burst into tears, said
'Thank you SOOO much'
and off we went!
We dropped off Rhett at the Lindquists (they're great), and drove to the hospital.  Once there, they checked me and saw that I was a 5, then 30 minutes later at a 7.
Ha ha--so I'd played with the idea of trying to go natural this time, but when they asked me if I wanted an epidural (cause we'd have to hurry), I was SOOOO DONE with contractions it wasn't hard for me to say YES PLEASE!  So I got an epidural--which Jess is always fascinated by...and oooooh, how I love epidurals! They are such a wonderful modern-day blessing--
I love you epidurals!

And an hour later at 12:21 Max was born!

So now we have 4 boys.  
WOWZA! I love it.  They are so so great with Max.  Jess took off a week of work so he's been doing the hard work around here.  My awesome mom is coming tomorrow so real life won't hit until all that help is gone (and spring break starts :)....but as of now--being a mom of 4 is roses and butterflies.  ha ha. Okay--maybe during spring break we may have some thorny roses and some ugly butterflies for a bit...but it's gonna be awesome :)

Kade is definitely the most lovey of all the boys for Rhett. He ALWAYS wants to hold him (like--no joke--always), and cuddle and give kisses.  He's so in love with Max!

Luke thinks he's super cute and is happy about him joining our family....but he's also Luke and is always going going going.  When he first held him, he had him for probably 10 seconds when he was happily done holding him and ready to do something else.

Rhett says his name sooo cute, "Mmaxxxx"  The 'x' sound is tricky apparently.  He likes holding him but  is most excited when we let him get Max' binki for him (Rhett just said goodbye to his binki a couple of months ago and has found memories for them). He gives great hugs and kisses and is gentle with him.  He also has TONS of Dad's attention at this point and hasn't noticed any decrease of attention so we'll see how his adjustment is.

Life is great great great and everyone is healthy.  We've had SUCH amazing support from friends with meals and gifts and help with the kids that our hearts couldn't be more full.  (and seriously, how great is it to get meals?  People are so nice :)  

The Gospel is true, and life is amazing, 

and just yay--

we're grateful to have our little Max here with us.

Luke's Jokes

Tonight our ward had a talent show. 

Kaden baked some amazing Texas Sheet Cake all by himself.

Which included stovetop cooking, lots of stirring and measuring---complete with washing the dishes (a little less excited about that part, but did it non-the-less :). 

Luke wanted to tell some jokes. 

AHH--he was so so excited!  So he started his research :)  He looked through his joke books and wrote down his favorite 3.  We like to keep preformances short around here so the 'magic' doesn't run out :)  Jess would probably say that a little differently. (he's not a big talent show watcher apparently :)

Luke was so so so cute tonight. We'd written down all his jokes, and he memorized it.  Then about 2 minutes before he went on stage, he got a little nervous and said he'd need his cheat sheet.  When they called his name, 

he walked up the stairs and looked back at me--

smiled, and handed the paper back with this look in his eye like, 

"i got this".

 It was so cute.

As he walked out he said, "How's everyone doing tonight?" In such a confident way. Ahh, I just loved it. Okay--so here's the video 

(also, sorry it's blurry--Rhett had my camera before we used it and the lens got all "Rhetty").

Sunday Afternoon Ninja's

 Nothing much to say about this....they just decided to be Ninja's.  So...there you go :)  I love these boys. Luke's doing his "Eagle Kick" and Kade's doing...some rad move with ninja face.

They're sporting a weapon of choice around here. The vicious "sock-in-a-sock"  It's pretty lethal.

I was taking a picture of Kaden with his 'spy face' and luke surprised him with an attack....

 Luke wanted to "identity" Kade while he was getting his picture taken. I'm pretty sure that's code for "be seen sneakily in the background watching...."

 And now Kade "identity" Luke.  Watch out spies of the world!

Rhett woke up in the middle and joined us.

Kade was the ninja of Intelligence, Luke was the ninja of Emotion, and Rhett was the ninja of Willpower.  (Per Kade's ninja-passing-out-ary)

Rhett's Ninja hands.

Valentines 2012

VALENTINES DAY 2012

On Monday Jess got his first acceptance letters for Law School (which he's been waiting for, for FOREVER)  he was really happy about the schools and it was a HUGE relief for him!  So with that AND getting to shave his head--he was on cloud nine even before we started our weekend!

So Jess has been working nights since January, his nights off are Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.  SO, we took a weekend from the 14th-15th as a last hooray before this new baby comes!  It was sooo fun!

We started our day off by saying goodbye to the kiddos on the bus and dropping off Rhett to our friend Jessica.  Then we drove to Atlanta and went to a session at the temple.  So nice!  Love that.  After we went  and got some food, and stopped at a cute little chocolate shop to get dessert. It was so fun to see eveyone in the shop all happy and getting chocolates for the ones they love.  (mmmmmm....I can't express how much I love chocolate!  It was a great place to be).

We checked into our hotel--which by the way we got a GREAT deal on by going through Hotwire.  (I was looking on Expedia first and the same hotel with a smaller bed was $100 more then what we paid through Hotwire--woo woo! I LOVE good deals!)

So...the main reason for going out to Atlanta was to hit the Melting Pot--it's a fondue restaurant that we've heard great things about......so...about me loving a great deal....it was okay. I mean we both thought the food was really good.  But for the price (it was a set menu for Valentines day so I'm not sure what normal prices were) it was just fine. 

Then we went back to our awesome deal hotel, and watched a show called, In Time--which we really liked.  And fell asleep in our giant king size bed and slept in till....7:50...(just couldn't sleep past that time---what do you do.)

It was  really fun and nice to just be with Jess.  I love that man!  We sang loud in the car, laughed a ton, talked without any interruptions, and just enjoyed each other.

It was an awesome Valentines Day and so so so nice to spend that time together.

Jess With HAIR

So here's a picture of Jess with hair back in the day---10 years ago!  Wowza!

 He's been shaving it for like 9 years and loves it right. WELL, our awesome friends the Lindquists wanted to see what it would look like now if he grew it out for a month.  HA HA!--they bet him $100 for it.  Turns out the man Jess will do most anything for $100. So, he grew it out.  

Here is Jess and the boys watching the Super Bowl.  

It's the only picture I got of his hair.  

He wasn't so excited about the look :)  

Okay...He mostly hated it really really bad.

BUT...what he hates worse, is to back down from a dare.  

So....he grew out the ole cul-de-sac!  

It was so thick on the sides in the end....and we saw where he'll be graying first :)  Plus, it was really strange for him to use shampoo.  

He shaved it off on Valentines Day and it was SUCH a happy day for him.  

The Lindquists made awesome on the money and gave him $100 in one dollar bills :).  

As a thank you, he saved all the clippings and put them in a little jar with a bow and a sign that read, 

"$100 worth of Jess Winns hair" on it.

Front view

And as a side note--the boys were so cute watching the Super Bowl.  

On Saturday they all went and picked out their own drink, and their favorite chips. They had grapes and ice cream and just wow--they were so excited.  It was so cute to watch them with Jess.

PLUS, Kade's teacher, Mrs. Armstrong is a HUGE Giants fan. She taught the kids a bunch of stuff about both teams so they could make predictions (a skill they learn in 2nd grade :) so as Kade was sitting there he'd say stuff like, "Brady deserves that for how he's been playing on the field this season." or one time when he said something about Eli Manning and I asked him about it, he said,

 "Mom, you must not watch football." For real?  I was dying.  

Kade's First Pinewood Derby

So we officially have a cub scout in our family now.  Kade loves it. It helps too that Jess is one of his Wolf Den Leaders.  So each Tuesday the two boys are off to the church and Kade comes home with all sorts of smiles about hammering a nail into a board, or using a screwdriver, or trying to race the Den Leaders in a foot race.  

Kade's "money" car.  (quarters all along the bottom and pennies on top front. )

On Feb. 7th he got to enter into his first official Pinewood Derby Race. Woo Woo. He painted his car to look like a dragon.  I didn't know how much the thing weighed and we wanted to add weights so I totally took it to Wal-Mart and weighed it on their vegetable scales.  (cause I'm awesome like that :)  It was 4 oz. right....Well--when we got to the race it was only 2.75--turns out Wal-mart's ripping us off! ha ha! ANYWAY, we hot glued on tons of change and brought it up to 4.85 oz (max is 5 oz)  He loved racing his car.  And it may have helped that he won first in his Den, and 3rd overall....but he insisted the fun was in making it :) 

 All the kids awesome cars!

 So cute!  They were doing the law of the pack or something....

There were 4 cars racing for his den so this was the "race off" for the Den.

 Kade and his good friend Alex displaying their cars!

Kade getting his first badge--his Bobcat Badge from Bro. Norris--the Cub Master!  Our ward has such an awesome program. I'm so so glad about that!

Christmas Fun

Here's some clips from Kade's 2nd grade play.  He was so so so excited to be the part of "Marty the Moose"  It was adorable and totally made me cry. It's fuzzy cause apparently we don't have the right lens for our camera but it's super tender...I may have cried after his little singing solo a little bit...the end.

Lights of the South

 It's one of those places that sets up tons of lights of Christmas stuff, Disney stuff, American stuff...you know--the works. ANYWAY, it was lovely.  Not too cold--I had a coupon--and we went with friends.

 Here are the boys with Santa.

Rhett didn't want to leave Jess' arms to see Santa this year, but he did reach his hand out just far enough to get a candy cane "nandy" from him before we left.

We do a scavenger hunt each Christmas Eve with the boys for them to find their pajamas.  This year Jess did the clues and totally rocked it.  Turns out rhyming is just something that I'm challenged with--not everyone.  The boys loved it!

One of the clues almost always leads us to lunch--this year--Burger King.  The boys were sure that we'd gone there the night before to hide it--cause how oh how could it be in their happy meals???  I like them.

Christmas Morning 2011was awesome as usual. Kade woke everyone up at 6:04 (6:00 being the earliest).

Since Christmas fell on a Sunday this year, we had Sacrament at 10:00 and needed to leave by 9:15, so....we had warned the boys that we would only be seeing what Santa brought before church and we'd open gifts after.  At 6:05 when we were all ready to go and see Luke got really sad and wanted to open the presents too... So Cari made everyone stay on her and Jess' bed until Luke cheered up determined not to have a weepy child on Christmas morning (I can be a fun killer from time to time :). It only took about 30 seconds for him to decide waiting was okay and off we went!  YAY Chistmas Morning

Luke got an amazingly awesome electric train set from Santa that all of us have been playing with.  It was so nice to take the time to just play with a few toys at a time instead of seeing what was next!  Hooray for going to church!

Kade's big gift was his 3DS. Now why--when you have a regular DS, you need a new one, is beyond me entirely.  Jess was the responsible party on this one and it made Kade SOO happy.  I still think it's ridiculous--the other one was working just fine :)  But that's all he asked Santa for so...there you go.

happy happy happy.  

We are so insanely blessed and thankful for our heath, and family, and that Jess has a job!  And especially to have the Gospel of Jesus Christ and ALL that goes with it.  Life is great!

Kade's Baptism

Kade was baptized and confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on

Dec. 3rd, 2011 at 3:00.

We were so so blessed to have both mine and Jess' parents fly out for this event.  They are amazing and we're so grateful for them.

My mom and Jess' mom. They're so great!

Because they were both staying at hotels, the boys split up on Friday night and both got to spend the night with one set. They were SOOOOO excited. I can't express enough how much these boys love hotels. 

 They drew names and Luke went with my parents.  He got to watch a movie in his giant bed, get a ice cream sandwich from the hotel bar, and work out in the gym with grandma and grandpa in the morning (he was pretty excited to tell us that he could life a 10 lb dumb bell!)

 Kade apparently felt like a king in his giant bed just lying there watching cartoons with his Butterfinger (it's like grandparents know kids love sweets or something :)  They both LOVED being able to do this.  We all met up in the morning to go swimming together.  And the water was WARM!  woo woo for warm pools.  It was awesome.

 Yeah, so Luke is doing bunny ears in the family pictures...so that's nice.

Jess didn't go swimming with us because he was having too much fun taking the LSAT (the test they use to apply for Law School).  I was so glad the baptism was AFTER the big test.  Not to mention I was really glad he made it in time.  He's such a wonderful man! 

 Kaden had a joint baptism with such a great little girl named Ashley Viens.  They were so cute.  The first picture of them they were probably 5 feet apart and neither one wanted to move closer. So after much coaching...and lots of little kid funny squirming, we got them in the same picture.  It makes me laugh. 

 I heard an earful about how embarrassing it was from both of them on Saturday and Sunday.  They're sooo awesome!  (oh, and Kade's wearing his Spy Watch he got for his birthday. It's pretty much his favorite thing ever.  He wore it to the baptism, took it off to get baptized but put it back on for his confirmation.  He's funny :)